U.N. Official in Warning on Afghan Drugs

Published: February 11, 2004

KABUL, Afghanistan, Feb. 10—
Foreign troops must move against smugglers and narcotics labs if Afghanistan is to win its war on drugs, the United Nations' top counternarcotics official, Antonio Maria Costa, said Tuesday.

Mr. Costa, in the Afghan capital for an antidrug conference, said a rare bombing run by United States warplanes on a remote northern opium processing lab in January had ''sent ripples'' through the Afghan drug world. ''If more evidence of that emerges from the south and from the east and from the center of the country, I believe we are going to get somewhere,'' he said.

The Afghan government has pledged to crack down on the booming drug trade this year, destroying crops and arresting traffickers, amid warnings from the United Nations that it risks becoming a ''narco state.'' Afghanistan produced three-quarters of the world's opium -- the raw material for heroin -- last year.

About 11,000 mainly American soldiers are pursuing suspected members of the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, while 6,100 NATO-led peacekeepers patrol mostly in Kabul.

United States and NATO commanders acknowledge drug production is complicating their effort to stabilize the country, but they have resisted calls from the Afghan government to tackle drug kingpins.